Welcome to Iceland Guest - Your Online Travel Guide.

Iceland Guest is an information website for your travel to Iceland. On this site you can get all the tourist information you need for your vacation in Iceland. We hope that you will find this online travel guide useful in planning your holidays in Iceland.

About Iceland
Iceland is a refreshingly unconventional travel destination. The Icelandic nature is unspoilt, exotic and mystical with its spouting geysers, active volcanoes, tumbling waterfalls, towering mountains, vast lava plains and magical lakes. Iceland’s fjords, glaciers and highland plains present visitors with some of the most beautiful and enchanting places they will ever see, as well as a rare feeling of utter tranquillity.

For travelers on a quest for action, Iceland’s pristine nature offers great potential for outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, horse riding, cave exploring, hiking, swimming, skiing, river rafting, kayaking and mountain safaris on modified four-wheel drives, to name but a few. Iceland supports a surprisingly diverse Nordic flora and fauna and is an ideal place for ornithology enthusiasts, while also offering some of the world’s best whale watching destinations.

About Reykjavik
Reykjavík sometimes feels like a cosmopolitan capital and a tiny seaside village - all wrapped up in one. But Reykjavík has the best of both worlds; the qualities of a modern, forward-looking society complemented by a close connection to Iceland‚s beautiful and unspoilt nature.

Reykjavík’s legendary nightlife is bolstered by plentiful cultural and social happenings in addition to an abundance of first-class restaurants. The size of Reykjavik city centre is also limited enough to allow for easy navigation by foot. Reykjavík has been described as a young and daring city that is characterized by strong contrasts. Conveniently small, clean and safe, it is more or less free from the major problems that haunt many other capitals. Big city events are frequent, the winter lights festival finished recently with thousands of participants and more tourist at this time of the year than we are used to.

in Focus

7.5.2007

Commercial Minke Whale Hunting Begins

Commercial minke whale hunting begins The commercial hunt for minke whales began on Friday when Njördur KÓ 7 caught the first minke, but has now been put on hold until scientific whaling, which begins tomorrow, finishes.

The total minke whale quota this season, which was issued by the government on October 17, 2006, is 74 animals; commercial hunters have permission to kill 38 minkes, while scientists have permission to kill 36, Fréttabladid reports.

“Scientific whaling will resume May 8 and we can’t mix those two together,” said Gunnar Bergmann, leader of the Union of Minke Whale Hunters.

According to Bergmann, three boats will hunt minkes for scientific purposes until June 25, during which 31 whales are scheduled to be caught. Five additional minkes are scheduled to be caught in September.

Commercial hunters take over after June 25 and have until August 31 to finish their quota. “We may not be able finish our quota if we have bad luck during that time,” Bergmann said.

The minke whale meat is intended for the domestic market.

“If the sale of whale products proves successful we can hardly be prohibited from hunting what the Marine Research Institute suggests,” Bergmann said.

The Iceland Marine Research Institute estimates that about 200 to 400 minke whales in Icelandic waters can be hunted every year without endangering the species.

Source: Iceland Review (www.icelandreview.com).

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